Thayer Evans of Fox Sports Continues His Witch Hunt Against Auburn's Cam Newton
By Jason McIntyre
Auburn’s much-maligned defense produced at least two heroes – Antonie Carter and Nick Fairley – in the comeback win. Newton, whether he wins a title or not, has produced one of the best seasons any SEC QB has ever had. He proved that when bottled up on the ground, he can beat you through the air. His NFL stock continues to soar. The win virtually cemented Auburn’s spot in the National Championship game. The Tigers weren’t even in the silly preseason Top 20!
All of which makes Evans’ jihad against Newton puzzling and frankly, disappointing. (Evans, a highly-thought of reporter at the New York Times, is struggling in his early months at Fox in what appears to be some kind of ‘look, I’m worth my big contract‘ display.) What’s even more surprising is that other than Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports, nobody in the media (or even all the bloggers who like to say they ‘cover the media’) has called out Evans for this bizarre 6 week attack on Newton.
Evans has let you know he won’t vote for Newton for Heisman, and doesn’t want you to, either. He’s written about 2-3 year old academic allegations that have no bearing on eligibility (not to mention Mississippi St. knew about when it was recruiting Newton). Allegedly, Evans phoned enough professors at Auburn poking around about Newton that someone put Evans’ phone number on a message board. Can’t wait to see how many Newton hit-pieces Evans churns out in the six weeks between the SEC Championship – assuming Auburn defeats South Carolina – and the National title game.
Did Evans really need to ask everyone in the locker room why Newton isn’t talking to the media? Not only was Auburn 28, Alabama 27 college football’s game of the year, but it had to be one of the five greatest wins in the last 20 years of Auburn football. And you’re asking people about Cam Newton’s silence? Auburn and all the participants in L’Affaire Newton have gone into bunker mode. Been that way for a couple weeks.
Here’s a simple, logical answer: Uh, there’s an investigation going on, and instead of fielding 37 questions about you-know-what, why not just ignore the questions altogether?